The present invention relates generally to watercraft and devices for providing lift or support on water or other liquids, and more specifically to an efficient hydroplane hull. A hydroplane hull is defined in this specification to include a wide range of planing devices supported by the dynamic pressure of water including power boats, sail boats, water skis, surfboards, sailboards, flying boat hulls, flying boat pontoons, and the like.
The concept of stepped planing hulls is more than 100 years old and is first attributed C. M. Ramus of England in 1852. In theory stepped hulls offer better control of overall trim angle, especially at very high speeds where unstepped hulls are unable to maintain sufficient trim angle. In practice however, stepped hulls have always constituted a small minority of planing hulls. It is believed that this is because of the sub optimum configurations of all known prior art.
Some known patents on stepped hulls include U.S. Pat. Nos. 956,487 to Fauber, 1,024,682 to Fauber, and 3,661,109 to Weiland.
Literature referring to stepped hulls includes: Offshorer Marine catalog (Italy, date unknown); Benen, NSRDC Reports 2169 and 2320; Clement, NSRDC Report 3011--March 1969; Flying boat hulls such as illustrated in NACA Technical Notes 545, 551, and 563; "Skater", powered offshore racing catamaran; and a photo of speedboat "Miss England III".